(This won’t be much of a diary and am only using this forum feature because I think it’s important and it’s not been given any attention here. I’ve been relying on Glenn Greenwald’s tweets (the one’s in English since I don’t read Portuguese) to keep me informed of this travesty.)
The Guardian — Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff impeached by senate in crushing defeat
Brazil’s first female president Dilma Rousseff has been thrown out of office by the country’s corruption-tainted senate after a gruelling impeachment trial that ends 13 years of Workers’ party rule.
Following a crushing 61 to 20 defeat in the upper house, she will be replaced for the remaining two years and four months of her term by Michel Temer, a centre-right patrician who was among the leaders of the campaign against his former running mate.
…
Surprise Surprise
Temer received support from the United States, which implicitly rejected claims that Rousseff had been removed in a coup. US State Department spokesman, John Kirby said, “We are confident we will continue our strong bilateral relationship. This was a decision made by the Brazilian people and obviously we respect that … Brazilian democratic institutions have acted within its constitutional framework.
…
He has promised to introduce austerity measures that will restore Brazil’s credit ratings, which under Rousseff fell to junk levels. This is popular with investors, but not with the public. His approval ratings are only a fraction above those of his predecessor and he was roundly booed during the Olympic opening ceremony.
Glenn (sampling which doesn’t do his live tweeting over the weeks justice):
The man who will be installed as Brazil’s Pres today: at least 62% want him out of office.
“Brazilians overwhelmingly want me impeached. A court banned me from running. But I’m about to become President!!”
“My rightist party can’t win. I personally lost to both Dilma *and Lula. But now I’m installed as Foreign Minister!”
Brazil’s new President: 1) could never be elected president; 2) is banned 8 yrs from running; 3) is the target of multiple investigations.
But, but:
Indian journalist @ShobhanSaxena: Brazil’s installed govt is moving away from BRICS & back to subservience to US
UPDATE: From Glenn again
Senators who voted YES to impeach Dilma admit that she committed no crime.
Impeachment coups just took a huge step forward in the ease and legitimacy of how they can be accomplished.
When do they start killing union organizers and environmentalists and selling their rain forests to China?
Our kinda guys!
SOP –only there’s been a pause in the government doing it; so, they had to outsource it to private operators that aren’t as efficient and those elites don’t like having to pay for it out of their own pockets.
From Glenn:
Man, these guys aren’t even subtle in trumpeting the restoration.
Escobar (link in comment down-thread) details what is to come:
they’ve ceased?
Depends on the definition of “they.” State army/police or paramilitary wings of capitalists/wealth. Oakland PD or Pinkerton’s.
I mean the ones in Brazil who killed, among others, Sister Dorothy Stang of Dayton Ohio
http://www.sndden.org/who-we-are/where-we-are/latin-america/the-amazing-grace-of-sr-dorothy-stang/
Good link — but just one of many environmentalists, union activists, etc. that have been murdered by the state or private “guards” for profit in Brazil.
We’re speaking of the same thing; just illustrating it differently.
that was my point
If Dems don’t win Congress this Fall I fully expect Hillary to be impeached – because Benghazi, Emails, or some other Trumped up charge – that will have already been adjudicated on by the US Electorate. The GOP doesn’t really care about democracy, except when it can work it in its favour.
That is also why the selection of Kaine as VP is so important. At least he is a credible, if uninspiring, replacement.
May not have to resort to a trumped up charge against HRC, but they could do so for Kaine.
They probably won’t do either because unlike Dilma, Hillary is the choice of the “banksters.”
I think the Republican’s visceral hatred of HRC is so deeply imbedded in their psyche that they would ignore the wishes of the banksters. If the House stays in Republican hands, calls for impeachment will begin immediately after inauguration.
Hate alone is sufficient motivation for those in the teabag caucus and all the crazy rubes the GOP has been stuffing full of hate for decades to go any mad thing. However, that faction of the public and Congress isn’t a majority. Could be a majority among House Republicans. Enough to oust Boehner as Speaker, but not large enough to replace him with one of their extreme members. And McConnell and not Cruz is the Senate majority leader.
Not discounting that House GOP members would want to impeach HRC, but they’ll get plenty of warnings from other GOP elites that it would be a bad move if they don’t have a slam-dunk case. It didn’t go so well for a few GOP Reps the last time they did this. Plus, a conviction in the Senate won’t happen. Not enough Republicans in that body and many of them are fond of HRC anyway. The latter would only vote yea for conviction to retain their position with their constituents if they were assured that their vote didn’t matter and they had a private understanding with HRC.
The teabag contingent is relentless in pursuit of Democratic officials to take down, but they’re also sloppy and anthills can’t be turned into mountains regardless of how long they spend trying to make it so. The only potential danger for HRC is if they inadvertently stumble upon a mountain that’s not in their interest not to see and then know what to do with it. Lots of ifs in that.
I agree with you one the Senate — nothing will happen there.
Unfortunately, many teabags will look at Brazil and ask themselves “why can’t we do that too?”
I don’t see them succeeding, but I do see them trying.
Doubt they needed Brazil to put an impeachment notion in their noggin. They could be asking among themselves, “How did they do that? And how can we do that here?”
It’ really simple — their problem is they don’t have the assets required and aren’t about to get them any time soon. What impeachment and no conviction would accomplish for them in the future is exactly what they got out of the last one — tarnish the presumed Democratic Clinton successor and inoculate themselves and a future GOP president from any impeachment effort regardless of criminal misdeeds. Americans won’t catch onto this game until after the third play and that’s like thirty years into the future.
Your second paragraph is ( I am afraid) spot-on. I had not looked at it through that lens before, but I fear you are right. This sure looks like a long gambit by the teabaggers.
Not the teabaggers — politically, checkers is too tough for them; tiddlywinks is their speed — they won’t be thinking any further than impeachment and believing that alone with secure their positive standing with a majority of voters in their districts. It’s the bigger GOP brains that will be gaming it out. Mustn’t forget that articles of impeachment can’t be passed unless the big cheeses give the okay. They are also the ones that know a few of those teabag heads will be chopped off in the next election cycle if they go ahead with the stunt, but collateral damage never bothers those in charge of an agenda.
but not completely unrelated (and it doesn’t fit within the daily Trump(and X)-is-nuts FP posts).
USA Today August 31, 2016 – CIA director misled FBI about how agency spied on Pentagon Papers leaker.
The lying is SOP — and long known by lefties even if in real time liberals deny it — but it’s how this
The echoes today are so clear to those that lived consciously through those days or learned their history well, but appear to go completely over the heads of those that didn’t. Nah, it’s worse, they are in the WL, Assange, Snowden are evil tools of Putin, Putin, Putin camp. They’re not even getting that undermining the Olympics (Sochi and Rio) has been added to the toolbox (of course, Carter was the first to more directly ramp up the politicization of the Olympics after WWII).
A huge argument that Clinton better start thinking about ensuring the Democrats control both the House and the Senate in this election.
A slack minimalist election strategy that just squeaks by a Presidential win will tempt Republicans to repeat the past.
Roussef’s political mistake was triangulating enough to weaken her base and the fear of her enemies, who used impeachment to dodge corruption trials.
Even winning might not be winning if political enemies are left standing.
Maybe the Democratic Party could us it in the remainder of their 2016 electioneering:
Of course the similarities between Dilma and Hillary end with being a woman and being a first. Dilma is popular with the people and she wasn’t shoved down their throats by a wealthy and powerful group of elites. Unlike the charge against FDR, Hillary isn’t going to be a traitor to the class that made her and therefore, talks of an impending impeachment for her is more scare tactics. Even if impeached, the case would have to be iron-clad to achieve that two-thirds threshold for conviction in the Senate. And if that were met, removal from office would be fully warranted.
Pepe Escobar — always a welcome voice and particularly on this event — Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, a Woman of Honor, Confronts Senate of Scoundrels
The impeachment coup, presidential usurper didn’t waste any time getting up on that really big stage (2016 G2)
Meanwhile back at home:
Photo caption by GG:
The Guardian — Antibacterial soaps banned in US amid claims they do ‘more harm than good’
In the early naughts, it hit me one day to wonder when and why I was buying anti-bacterial hand soap. I’d been buying soft-soap for some time by then because it was tidier, but probably didn’t pay much attention to the addition of anti-bacterial stuff in it. Once I questioned this change — and knowing that it’s not healthful to over-use anti-bacterial stuff — I decided to switch back to the regular soap. Yet at that point, I couldn’t because there was none on the store shelves. So, it was back to bar soap for me.
Those anti-bacterial hand wipes for the cart handles have disappeared too. What happened to washing your hands before eating? My ears still sting in memory of Mom marching me to the bathroom holding my ear when she caught me with dirty hands at the table. I guess today that’s child abuse.
We’re getting there. Regular soap and water (the latter probably more important) cleans hands just fine. We Americans are suckers for the next best thing that promises safety (beauty, health, etc.) and are quick to adopt such products as long as there isn’t a huge price differential. A little more expensive, with those great promises, and we’re there without any thought.